bradgrier.com

Links for 2009-07-09 [del.icio.us]

2009-07-10T00:00:00-07:00

Interesting: Reuters Handbook of Journalism revised and available online
Reuters: The handbook, now in its second online edition and fully revised, is the work of no one individual. Dozens of journalists from text, television, pictures and from domestic as well as international services, have worked to bring it up to date. It builds on the work of colleagues, too many to number over the past 150 years, whose commitment to the most ethical standards of our profession has made Reuters the outstanding news organisation it is today.
Interesting: [I've used CoTweet in the private phase...very cool!] CoTweet Launches Public Beta: Now You Can Tweet Like Starbucks
ReadWriteWeb: The majority of companies on Twitter rely a variety of tools to allow multiple employees to post to one unified Twitter account. CoTweet is one of the most popular of these tools and it is currently being used by major brands like Starbucks, CocaCola, and Whole Foods, as well as by celebrities like Britney Spears. Starting today, anybody can tap into the power of CoTweet, as the company just announced a free public beta program. In addition, CoTweet also announced that it has raised $1.1 million in VC funding.
Interesting: Ubiquity jumps to version .5, breaks some stuff, enhances others: Announcing Ubiquity 0.5
This release, Ubiquity 0.5, focuses on making the instructions you give to Ubiquity feel more natural and human, as well as bringing Ubiquity’s power to many more languages.
Biz: Print Media Is Dying. Online Revenues Are Tiny. What If the Ads Are to Blame?
Fast Company: Thanks to those simple interactive features, [these] ads increase click throughs by as much as 70%. Part of the big problem with getting advertisers to pay for Web ads is that they see the miserable click-through rates and figure, why bother? (It's a mystery why they continue to pay a premium for print ads--the rationale goes that they're more eager to take part in a carefully curated magazine or media outlet.) SpongeCell's figures, if accurate, set off a whole host of possibilities. First, if click-through rates were almost double what they are now, media outlets would be able to charge higher premiums for their ad space.
Biz: [Behind the blog] One Degree interviews Laura Buchanan on Future Shop's Community and Tech Blog
One Degree: As part of the community, she and Future Shop recently launched the Tech Blog. The Tech Blog is written by six seven Canadian tech bloggers (including our own Brad Grier) – sharing their reviews of technology and consumer electronics. Laura shared her perspective on the community, blog and other social media outlets.

Links for 2009-07-08 [del.icio.us]

2009-07-09T00:00:00-07:00

Interesting: Earlier this week, Canadian game development gets a huge boost as Ubi announces new Toronto dev studio.Witness the Historic Ubisoft Toronto Press Conference (full video)
On Monday, July 6 in downtown Toronto, Ubisoft made an historic announcement to open a full development studio in Toronto, Ontario. Opening up for business in Ontario is a first for the company, and will add to their already sizeable presence in Canada. Ubisoft owns a massive complex in Montreal employing almost 2,000 people, a Quebec City studio, as well as Vancouver-based Action Pants (a recent acquistion now known as Ubisoft Vancouver).
Interesting: Sources: Google OS lives (and it's coming to a netbook near you)
Ars Technica: Two separate sources—one inside the company and one outside it—have confirmed to Ars tonight that Google plans to launch an operating system built in some fashion around its new Web browser, Chrome. One source says that the new OS will be launched soon, perhaps as early as tomorrow.
Interesting: Sniff...farewell! Goodbye, CompuServe! (We thought you already died)
Ars Technica: A little piece of Internet history has now been laid to rest, as CompuServe was shut down for good just before this Fourth of July weekend. After some 30 years of service, CompuServe's new owner has finally pulled the plug, leaving us to reminisce about the days when the Internet was young and we were still using modems whose speed was measured in baud.

Links for 2009-07-06 [del.icio.us]

2009-07-07T00:00:00-07:00

Interesting: MS Marketing misses the mark on IE8, again! Microsoft Makes Users Sick, Pulls Ad
WSJ: the company created the ad as a “tongue-in-cheek look” at a feature in Microsoft’s new Internet Explorer 8 that allows users to prevent the browser from recording any trace of their browsing history.
Tech: Is iPod Touch getting a camera?
Cnet: While attributing its information only to a "sources in Asia," TechCrunch claims that Apple has placed an order for camera modules destined for the next version of the iPod Touch. The size of the order, according to TechCrunch, is "massive."
Interesting: At least we have Space in Canada: The Death of the Sci Fi Channel: Or, Semper Sy Fy!
The Bad Pitch Blog: Tuesday morning the Sci Fi channel becomes Sy Fy, which you can be assured will be back as Sci Fi not long after that. Just about everyone who has heard about this wondered “What branding company is sleeping with who over there?” You cannot pretend to like this moniker.
Blog: 4 ways my evolving computing environment has made me more productive - except when it comes to titles :(
FSBlog: Over the weekend I installed Windows 7 on my primary desktop at home. This was an upgrade from XP, which meant that I have a whole swack of legacy hardware that will need new drivers, and all my applications will need reinstalling. I'll let you know in a month or so how it all went; I'm not crazy enough to try and do it all at once :smileyhappy:
Interesting: Facebook's Privacy Settings Fail MI6: Head of British Intelligence Cover Blown
FastCompany: Sir John Sawers, the agent in question, was poised to be installed as chief in November, and his wife's breach of security--her profile was open to all Facebook's 200 million members with no privacy settings enabled--will set back the the transition considerably. Sawers' wife also posted photos, information about friends and family, vacation spots, and other potentially sensitive details on Facebook. (Image of Sawers from Facebook, below, courtesy of TimesOnline.)
Biz: In-Book Ads Coming to the Amazon Kindle?
FastCompany: The patents are titled "On-Demand Generating E-Book Content with Advertising" and "Incorporating Advertising in On-Demand Generated Content," and they're designed in part to tackle that irritating little problem that "out of print or rare books ... typically do not include advertisements" and their content is thus fixed, and not at all "adapted to modern marketing." I don't know about you, but I don't recall seeing any advertising in books now, other than fluff for other publications by the same author, so Amazon's words confuse me.
Tech: Bing to lose beta tag in Australia, Canada, China, Japan, UK
Ars Technica:For whatever reason, Microsoft decided that Canadians should get a form of Bing close to the US version (categorizations work for Canada but not for the other four countries), though it is still missing numerous features like hotspots on the homepage. All of these countries, apart from Canada, sport a "Beta" tag under the Bing logo, and none of them are as feature-complete as the US version.
Interesting: Passenger fixes faulty airliner
BBC: One passenger then identified himself as a qualified aircraft engineer and offered to try to remedy the fault. He was successful, and the plane landed in Glasgow only 35 minutes late.
Blog: We don't need another hero -- or do we?
Over the last few months, I've been privy to the beta / development of Battlefield Heroes, EA / Dices' latest entry into the casual online gaming marketplace. Battlefield Heroes is free to play on most Windows based systems. The developers kept the hardware requirements low to help stimulate interest.

Links for 2009-07-04 [del.icio.us]

2009-07-05T00:00:00-07:00

Blog: This is the week that was...
So this week I discover the word 'so'. And use it so excessively, while taking a look back at the tech news that happened over the last seven days.

Links for 2009-07-03 [del.icio.us]

2009-07-04T00:00:00-07:00

Interesting: Great post on urban Geocaching in Edmonton: Is Caching Dumbing Down? #yeg
The history of quality of geocaches in cities is like the quality of drinking water in cities, and the quality of *nearly everything else* in cities. The quality of city drinking water has been deteriorating. Some people decide to buy big drums of purified water. Others think it's a standard now, which is sad. Other's *can't* afford to buy big drums of purified water, even if they want to. Others think its sad but don't know that there's anything better. All those who drink purified water advocate the city water supply by paying their utility bills for the water that's used in sanitation.
Tech: Anti-database movement gains steam [is mySQL dead, for specific applications, maybe]
InfoWorld: Facebook, for instance, created its Cassandra data store in-house to replace its use of MySQL. According to a presentation by Facebook engineer Avinash Lakshman (PDF document), Cassandra can write 50GB of data in 0.12 milliseconds, more than 2,500 times faster than MySQL.
Interesting: Apple tips to prevent iPhone 3GS overheating
Infoworld: In light of a spate of recent iPhone 3GS overheating reports, Apple published a set of guidelines to help iPhone users ensure that their devices remain at proper operating temperatures to prevent overheating and related issues. More accurately, Apple released the tips the day that many of the initial reports surfaced, last Thursday, June 25, so it's unclear whether or not the two are
Interesting: Are iPod touch users second-class citizens? Apple says yes
ZDNet: Almost half of all Apple iPhone users have already installed the free iPhone Software 3.0 update released last week — 6 million customers, according to Apple on Monday. But iPod touch customers? Facing a $10 upgrade fee, the vast majority are saying, “No thanks.” About 15 percent of the 40 million multitouch devices sold by Apple are running Apple iPhone Software 3.0. According to new statistics by AdMob — whose ad network is used by many iPhone developers who want to monetize their free apps — 44 percent of iPhone users were already running iPhone Software 3.0 by June 27.
Interesting: Firefox 3.5 downloaded 5 million times in first 24 hours [I got mine..did you get yours?]
Ars Technica:Mozilla officially released Firefox 3.5 on Tuesday. The new version of the popular open source web browser has attracted considerable attention and is already seeing rapid adoption. It was downloaded over 5 million times during the first 24 hours. This falls short of the record-setting 8 million downloads that Firefox 3 had during its first day, but it still reflects the intense enthusiasm of the browser's fans.
Tech: Who's watching the watchers? [Time to revert to an icebox]
GlobeAndMail: The plans to "spy-chip" your fridge belong to Procter & Gamble, which has a second patent pending to track consumers in-store. American telecommunications giant BellSouth has a patent pending on the garbage-picking. NCR is behind the shopping cart ads and also holds a patent on "automated monitoring of shoppers" at grocery stores. As for Viagra, like OxyContin, its manufacturers are already tagging bulk bottles at the pharmacy (packs of Diovan, an antihypertensive, are actually tagged individually).
Cool: And funny -- Summer Movies We're Afraid to See: Brokeback Platform
FastCompany: In this season of Transformers and G.I. Joe, and with Hollywood prepping big-budget versions of Monopoly, Bazooka Joe, and Stretch Armstrong, what's next? Each week we'll supply the title for an upcoming--and completely fake--Hollywood movie. You supply the plot synopsis, then reveal the hidden text below to see what Rooftop Comedy came up with.
Interesting: Light Pollution Per Capita -
SkyAndTelescope.com: Nine of the top ten light-polluting metropolitan areas are in North America. Sorting by white squares (rather than red and white combined), Tokyo just slides onto the list in the #10 spot. But Tokyo is by far the world's most populous metropolitan area, almost equal to New York and L.A. combined. No city in Europe even makes the top
Cool: Very very cool indeed! The Pentagon's Robotic Hummingbird Takes Flight
FastCompany: This is the first-ever hovering air vehicle to use flapping wings while carrying its own power source. The hope is that the hummingbird will be useful for indoor and outdoor surveillance, as well as dropping off listening devices and other super-spy cargo.
Tech: Are You a Retro Game-a-Holic?
FSBlog: Of course whenever you power up a cherished retro game that you haven't experienced in more than a decade you're taking a moderate risk. Some games withstand the test of time, while others clearly feel dated and uninspired. Of the above mentioned games the ones that seemed to stand out the most were the party games such as Mario Kart, Super Bomberman, and the games that still possess decent play control (compared to today's standards) such as Road Road and Knights of the Round.
Interesting: What Has Social Media Done For You Lately?
FSTechBlog: It's that simple, with the power of the retweet if you ask a question of your Twitter followers and they pass it along to their followers, who pass it along to theirs - well, you can see that just about anything can be accomplished.
Interesting: How can gold vanish from a locked mint? Truth sleuth: The Royal Canadian Mint
Accounting errors in previous years were carried over, it was lost in the imprecise method used to process gold into bars and coins, or it could have been stolen.

Links for 2009-07-02 [del.icio.us]

2009-07-03T00:00:00-07:00

Interesting: Global Photo Project: July 2009: Global Moment in Time
Photo.net: We're going to do another "Global Moment in Time" project. July 18 2009, 3:00 UTC The purpose of this project is to get a group of photographers from across the world at approximately the same moment. This project isn't a stickler for shooting at the same exact second, and long exposures are supported (and encouraged). However, try to start your exposure as close to 15:00 UTC/GMT as possible. Last year, we went with 15:00 UTC as our time so I figure it's only fair to switch it up by 12 hours and go with 3:00 UTC. I think the plan to do it on a weekend is also a good idea. So, the date is July 18 2009, 3:00 UTC.
Biz: Canadian marketers have more rules imposed - Bill C-27 – A Checklist of To-Do’s
One Degree: Canada’s Bill C-27 (the Electronic Commerce Protection Act) is expected to become a law shortly – adding another set of rules that all marketers sending email to Canadian recipients will need to follow. These rules will be in addition to those set out in the American CAN-SPAM Act which has long served as the rules that North American marketers have followed. Bill C-27 also augments PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act) which outlines a set of rules designed specifically to protect consumer privacy.
Interesting: One Lesson from the Crisis: It’s Time to Create Your Own Economy
Fast Company: Buying $2 worth of bananas boosts GDP; having $20 worth of fun on the Web does not. And this effect is a big one. Each day more enjoyment, more social connection, and, indeed, more contemplation are produced on the Web than had been imagined even 10 years ago. But how do we measure those things?
Work: Our Kids Aren't Web-Addicted, Says Study. Are We?
Fast Company: It's only we adults that are at PC workstations all day, looking for ways to avoid doing work or trolling the boundaries of our IT-installed browser filters. And we're the only ones who have social networks big enough to require a tool like Twitter. Imagine how absurd Twitter seems when you only have 10 or 12 friends, not a network of 300+ coworkers, college buddies and colleagues?
Interesting: Segway inventor has a new bike! Dean Kamen's Newest Invention: A Stirling Hybrid Scooter
Fast Company: the invention appears to be a conventional scooter with a Stirling engine and fuel tank under the seat, a rechargable battery pack in the floor, and a radiator in the front. The Stirling engine has a low energy output on its own, but it could supply power when the bike is at a standstill, making sure that the battery never dies.
Tech: [it's about time...] Dell developing handheld Internet device
Infoworld: Dell is developing a handheld mobile device designed for Internet access, following in the footsteps of rival Apple, according to a news report published in the Wall Street Journal on Monday. Dell engineers are developing prototype devices that resemble Apple's iPod Touch but are slightly larger and lack cellular capabilities, according to a news report, citing unnamed sources. Dell will begin selling the Internet access device later this year, though the plan could be scrapped.
Cool: Student Invents Energy Efficient Escalator That Also Transports Wheelchairs [and can save energy too!]
Fast Company: The most obviously clever part of the design is its steps. Normally, the escalator's steps are of a standard width. But at the push of a button, three steps come together, to create a platform that's perfectly sized for a wheelchair.
Interesting: Open Letter From an Ad Agency Intern - I can't believe he left a source of Free Beer!
Phoenix Ad Blog: Well, it’s been one heck of a time interning over at your super-cool office. The Friday in-house happy hour was a great touch. When I landed the internship at your place I was excited. Working downtown in a hip office, getting some experience in the industry and the free beer is what lured me in. It sounded like a dream!
Biz: [more on Facebook's privacy changes] Facebook Wants You! (To Over-Share)
Fast Company: To help the common man figure out this mess, Facebook is launching something called Transition Tool next week. It'll help you define just what certain privacy settings mean, like who exactly the "everyone" setting applies to (it really is "everyone"--adjust your settings just so, and it allows Google to index your info). It'll also encourage you to re-evaluate your privacy settings with the new improved interface. And to think: you were going to spend the next few hours seeing the new Transformers movie. Pshh.
Cool: "Hitler's Stealth Fighter" Re-created
National Geographic: Top stealth-plane experts have re-created a radical, nearly forgotten Nazi aircraft: the Horten 2-29, a retro-futuristic fighter that arrived too late in World War II to make it into mass production. (See Hitler's stealth fighter in pictures.) The engineers' goal was to determine whether the so-called stealth fighter was truly radar resistant. In the process, they've uncovered new clues to just how close Nazi engineers were to unleashing a jet that some say could have changed the course of the war.
TEch: NASA - Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has transmitted its first images since reaching the moon on June 23.
Cool: Gadget Guy also a wizard of words! Alberta resident receives Toastmasters International's highest honour
Greg Gazin, of Edmonton, will be receiving the Toastmasters International Presidential Citation, to be presented at the 78th Annual Convention in Connecticut.

TweetDeck – now with more awesome!

2009-06-17T21:27:02Z

In the wiggly world of Twitter apps, competition is getting pretty tight between the leading desktop contenders; TweetDeck, Seesmic, and new-kid-on-the-block Mixero.

Today TweetDeck launched their latest update, with some pleasant surprises:

Conversation window – View an entire dialogue all at once.

Video playback – Watch Qik or 12seconds video clips from the comfort of TweetDeck.

New ‘Block & Report Spam’ button – Just one click will delete the message from view, block the user and report them to Twitter.

TweetDeck Recommends column – Find new and interesting people to follow whether you’re a Twitter newbie or a veteran of the Twitterverse.

‘Reply All’ – Tweet everyone mentioned in a tweet in just a couple of clicks.

YFrog – Share and preview YFrog photos inside TweetDeck.

Smart filter – Start typing a username to find a person and add them to a group quickly and easily.

RE (In reference to) tweets – Easily comment on a discussion.

But the two biggest surprises for me were an iPhone / iPod Touch version, and the ability to Sync your various installations of TweetDeck, so you can keep your group and search panels between work and home.

I’ve not had the time to give this version of TweetDeck a full workout yet, but I’m looking forward to doing just that, and maybe comparing it with Mixero and SeesMic…all three have their distinct benefits.

But, if you’ve not yet upgraded, or even tried TweetDeck as your desktop Twitter client, do it now. You won’t be disappointed.

Installing Eeebuntu on my eeePC

2009-06-10T20:14:40Z

You may remember this post where I waxed poetic on the somewhat-easy installation of Easy Peasy Ubuntu on my eeePC 8G (it’s a 701). Well, believe it or not, I’ve nuked Easy Peasy and am now running Eeebuntu…and the install was even easier!

What got it all started was this post about the ‘base edition’ of Eeebuntu. This section caught my eye:

To accommodate the various capabilities of the vast Eee product line, Eeebuntu comes in three different ISOs: Eeebuntu Standard, Netbook Remix, and Base. A week and a half ago, Eeebuntu released version 3.0 of its Base edition, the lightest and tightest of the three ISOs.

And since I was somewhat disappointed by the speed of Easy Peasy, and Ubuntu was now two versions newer than my current install, I thought it was time to update.

So, by following these simple instructions to set up my USB stick, installing Eeebuntu went flawlessly. And it took much less time than my initial Easy Peasy install. I’m a happy camper.

As the EeeBuntu site mentions, Eeebuntu Base is the bare-bones operating system.

…is the smallest, lightest and most stripped down of the three ISO’s. Apart from Gnome and its usual configuration applications, Firefox, restricted extras and the Eeeconfigure application, there’s little else, which means it’s up to you to add as few or as many as you need.

Which means that even on my first-generation netbook, it’s much faster than the Easy Peasy, XP, or even the original Linux OS who’s name I can’t remember right now.

Time will tell how it works out, but so far, for simple netbook tasks, it’s a champ.

A simple and easy way to back up your Google Docs

2009-05-22T16:48:20Z

If you do a lot of your work on various computers in different locations (as I do), conveniently accessing your documents is important.

Though I carry a 2GB USB drive everywhere, I actually find it easier to use Google Docs and store my work ‘in the Cloud’, so to speak.

But, that amorphous blob of computing-storage could crash, or my Internet connection could be down. My productivity would end unless there was a way to backup and continue my work on my USB drive too. And there is.

FireFox + GreaseMonkey script + DownLoadThemAll == Solution
If you understood the above heading, then you can see how I solved it. If not, bear with me and all will become clear(er).

First, install and run FireFox. You can’t continue (and your browsing experience will be greatly improved) until you do.

Next, if you’ve not yet installed GreaseMonkey, do so now. This little application runs sophisticated scripts within your browser to improve your online experience. There’s a whole host of cool GreaseMonkey scripts to explore.

Thirdly, install DownloadThemAll — a nifty FireFox addon that automagically downloads all the links or images on a web page. You’ll see how that works for us after the next step.

Finally, install the Google Docs Download GreaseMonkey Script. This is the crux of the solution. To quote the documentation, once inside your Google Docs account:

Just navigate to the document list that you wish to download and select the documents you want to download by clicking their checkboxes or click the select: all link at the bottom of the page. Click the drop down menu on the right side of the page that reads “Download Your Documents” and select a format. A new window will open and you now have a list of links to download all of the documents that you selected.

The beauty of this script is that it you can select which format you’d like for output (PDF, TXT, CSV, Open Office or Microsoft Office), and it works with regular Google Docs accounts, as well as Google Apps for Domains accounts.

To summarize
By simply navigating to my Google Docs main directory, selecting ‘All Documents’ (making sure they’re all checked), and then launching the DownloadThemAll Add on (now in your FireFox Tools menu), I’ve easily created an editable local copy of all my work stored in the G-Cloud. And any work I do on a local copy can be easily imported (as a new file) back into Google Docs.

Admittedly, it’s not as easy as storing it all on a USB stick. But a stick can be lost, and I’d rather have my backup go south, than all my finished work should I actually lose the stick.

Your thoughts? Would this work for you or am I too paranoid?

Me? A Professional Blogger? Yep, somewhat.

2009-06-10T20:12:39Z

Today I became a professional blogger for Future Shop, the Canadian technology retailer. Professional as in ‘compensated’ for my writing. No, I’ll not be leaving my most excellent day job, I’d need a bunch more of these to make blogging my sole source of income and I’m not that prolific

You’ll find me (and a bunch of other very smart / cool Canadian bloggers) writing for the Future Shop Tech Blog. Here’s the rest of the team:

Mathew Kumar
Paul Hunter
Buzz Bishop
Tris Hussey
Klaus Boedker

We’ve been given pretty-much free reign to write about whatever we want. So, in my case, I’ll be writing about things I’m passionate about; Technology, How-Tos, Reviews, Entertainment, etc.

To give you a bit more background into the Future Shop Community and the new Tech Blog, I thought I’d pose a few questions to Laura Buchanan, Future Shop’s Social Community Specialist and the Tech Blog manager. You can also read Laura’s kind introduction to the blog team here.

BG: Tell us a bit about yourself and the role you have at Future Shop. Social Community Specialist is a very ‘open’ job title

LH: My job title is pretty unique – when I tell people that I’m the Social Community Specialist for Future Shop, at first, they nod politely, but this nod usually turns into a sideways shake of the head, their eyes darting slightly as they say “uh huuuuhh…??” So I follow this statement up with a more long-winded one: I manage the Future Shop Community - an online tech enthusiast community for Canadians. No, I don’t answer every question that gets asked. I’m responsible for the overall health and strategy for everything that touches the Community, including the forum, blogs, how-to videos and lots of other fun projects. I joined Future Shop in this role in November 2007 a few months after the Community was launched. Future Shop was really one of the first companies in Canada to launch this sort of forum, so it’s been a pretty steep learning curve for everyone here – there was definitely wasn’t a manual! It’s a pretty fun job – you’ll never hear me say I’m bored!

BG: Can you give us a bit of background as to how the Future Shop Community came about?

LH: The motivation was simple: create a space where Canadians could connect with their peers, Product Experts and manufacturers on everything related to technology. The idea was to help our customers make informed decisions that were right for them whether they were looking to purchase a new printer or needed some help figuring out how to connect with laptop to their tv. To date, the community has over 125,000 posts, that’s a lot of techno stress relieved!

BG: How does the Tech Blog fit into this strategy?

LH: In order to keep our community healthy, we need to continue to evolve it and to give our users a reason to come back and a reason for new members to join. The Tech Blog has always been part of the plan. We want to provide our Community with as many resources as we can to help them make informed decisions. We also want to spark discussion and debate about technology & consumer electronics, and see the tech blog as a great way to do that.

As a Tech Blog writer, I find myself in some awesome company. Generally speaking, how did you select the blogging team?

LH: When I started looking for bloggers, the criteria that I set up was that they were knowledgeable, already blogging, good writers and above all else, passionate about technology. I had a few bloggers in mind already, but spent a lot of time googling, clicking through blogrolls and “asking around”. I looked at dozens and dozens of blogs before shortlisting, then finalizing the team. There’s definitely a diverse pool of expertise amongst the bloggers and we’re all very excited to see what sort of articles are going to come from them!

BG: Any other plans for the Future Shop Community you’d like to share?

LH: The Community is going to be a very dynamic space over the next couple months – actually over the next couple of years. I think the potential that it holds is only just now starting to be realized.

As you can tell, I’m a bit excited about this. Over the next little while, I’ll be looking into Linux, Netbooks, my Windows 7 beta experiences, and maybe even some casual gaming.

So do check it out. My fellow Future Shop Tech Blogs are awesome (and funny) writers and well worth the read. I can’t wait to see what we come up with.

The Future Shop Tech blog will be live on Friday May 15th. I’m looking forward to your feedback on it.

How to synchronize your podcast feeds on many computers

2009-04-30T18:12:19Z

A friend recently asked me if I knew of a way to synchronize his podcasts (using iTunes) on multiple computers.

Initially I had no idea, but then I remembered PodNova.

Aside: I’ve since learned that iTunes supports OPML import / export, but still think PodNova is the better way to go — online centralized repository of all your podcast feeds VS saving and moving OPML files between computers.

I’d written about it a few years ago when I was looking into a text-to-speach solution for my blog: How to convert your blog post into a podcast.

Basically, PodNova is a service that you use to subscribe to all of your podcasts. Or, you can stream your podcasts directly to your computer (or mobile device: iPhone, iPod Touch, etc).

But, if you want to keep all your computers synchronized, you simply point your iTunes subscription at ‘your personalized’ RSS podcast feed. Done.

The result is that you now have one feed to remember, but that feed now contains ALL your podcast subscriptions. All you have to do is subscribe to your PodNova feed, sit back, and enjoy your podcasts. Once per computer.

How to view PDF and other files on your iPhone and iPod Touch

2009-06-10T20:10:34Z

I have to read a lot of fiction in the next few months. A lot of Science Fiction to be precice, and it’s so I can cast an informed ballot to help select the best of the genre at this year’s World Science Fiction convention (WorldCon).

As a member of WorldCon, a packet containing this year’s nominees arrived in my inbox earlier this week. Lots of PDF, RTF, DOC and TXT files, for many diverse categories including best Novel, Novella, etc. Not small files by any stretch.

So, to avoid culling a small forest by printing it all out, I decided to try and read them on my iPod Touch. In the past I’ve enjoyed reading on my previous portable device, the Palm T|X, so figured that I should give it a try on the Touch.

The dilemma, how to get just under 200mb of data on to this little sucker. Well, I solved it, two ways. Here’s how:

Over-the-air file sharing (Air Share) for PC with Files Lite:
Files Lite is, as the name suggests, the free ‘lite’ version of OliveToast’s Files program.

The way it works is pretty simple.

Files allows you to store and view files on your iPhone or iPod touch. You can connect to Files from any Mac or PC and drag and drop files straight from the Finder or Windows Explorer, as you would with any other shared folder. In fact any client which understands the WebDAV protocol can connect to Files.

So, basically your setting your iPhone up as a server, then copying files to/from it using your desktop computer’s interface.

I’ve tried it, and it works quite well. But, where it really excels is in it’s ability to display those various file formats. I’m already part way through Little Brother by Cory Doctorow and am very comfortable reading on the iPod Touch. For the most part, Files Lite works as you expect a well-designed iPhone app to work.

Files Lite is limited to storing 200mb of data in your device. If you need more, then you’ll need to buy the full version at the AppStore.

Or, take a look at the next application, Stanza.

Stanza, the workhorse of eReaders for your iPhone:

This just in (Apr. 27.09) Stanza was acquired by Amazon.com. Not sure what this’ll mean for the free eBook reader, but it’ll be interesting, for sure. Maybe Amazon’s catalogue will now be available via Stanza as well as Kindle.

Stanza is a very interesting ebook reading application. For starters, it’s not only for reading content you already own, you can purchase and download new content into your online library.

Which means that Stanza’s aware of many different online publishers (and differing eBook formats) of both free and paid ebooks.

To make Stanza work with your own eBook library, you’ll need to download and install the appropriate Stanza desktop client (Mac, PC).

Depending on your configuration (iPhone or iPod Touch) you’ll need to make sure your desktop application and portable versions of Stanza can ’see’ each other. Here’s an excellent writeup on exactly how to do that.

One drawback for me; to transfer your existing library, you have to move one book at a time. You can’t (at least as far as I could tell) move multiple eBooks in one pass.

Reading on Stanza is pretty comfortable, and intuitive; tap on the right side of the screen to turn the page, the centre to adjust your settings, the left to flip back a page. Drag up or down to adjust the screen brightness.

So, for me, Stanza is the eBook reader of choice. It is clunky to get the content into my iPod Touch, but once it’s there, the reading experience is just a bit nicer.

Your mileage may vary. I’d be interested in reading your experiences with eBook readers…or suggesting others for me to look at…I’m sure I haven’t seen them all for the iPhone yet.

Top photo courtesy David Sifry

Simple update adds iPhone style to your blog

2009-06-10T20:17:04Z

Yesterday I installed the WPTouch plugin on this blog. Basically it’s a Wordpress theme that reformats your blog so it’s much more readable on mobile devices (Android, iPhone, iPod Touch). Full list of features here.

More than just a plugin, WPtouch is an entire theme package for your WordPress website. Modeled after Apple’s app store design specs, WPtouch makes your WordPress website load lightning fast on touch mobile devices, show your content beautifully, all while not interfering with your regular theme.

In practice, it’ll take a blog laid out like this (thanks to Thesis):

And make it look like this:

Bonus: WPTouch also includes hooks for website traffic analytic packages, as well as Adsense mobile accounts, so you won’t miss out monetizing your mobile website traffic.

Major Tom cover version — official free download available

2009-06-19T21:33:39Z

You’ve likely heard it in the Lincoln MKZ commercials, but last night I finally paid attention to the ad and listened… and heard this awesome version inbetwixt shows. So obviously I had to find it somewhere.

After scouring Google videos and all, I’d finally resigned myself to having to listen to it through this blip.fm track.

Then, good friend and uber-tracker-outdoor-dude Ranger Bob found the official download of Shiny Toy Guns cover version of Peter Shilling’s Major Tom (Coming Home).

Update: Embedding the Blip.fm flash player version here for instant listening gratification.

Give it a listen, then check out the original in the Peter Shilling YouTube videos. Who wins? I like the new one

5 favourite iPhone & iPod Touch applications

2009-04-27T05:22:14Z

I recently bought an iPod Touch to replace my very cool, yet aging Palm T|X. The iPod Touch doesn’t yet ‘fit me like a glove’ but I’m sure after time it will, and I’ll document my experiences with it here.

Previously I’d written that I was rather unimpressed with the ‘WiPod’ as I called it then. The feature set looked limited and the price was rather high.

My how much difference a year and a half makes. This is a very functional device that I’m beginning to really appreciate.

But today, I thought I’d share my five favourite iPhone / iPod Touch applications. Even though I’ve had mine under a month, be assured that I’ve been scouring the iTunes Applications store over that month. You may not agree with me, or maybe I’ve missed YOUR must-have application; please let me know in the comments below.

But, since I found that app store so handy, it has to be the first application on my list:

The iTunes Application Store: Here’s where you purchase your iPhone & iPod Touch applications. The store is searchable, and breaks the available applications down by categories, as well as ranking them by popularity and ‘new-ness’. But you don’t have to spend a lot to get more functionality on your device; many applications are only $0.99 (in your local currency!). And, there are often ‘lite’ free versions available too. A must have application, and since it’s shipped with your device, you’ve no reason to not explore it further.
Flight Control: Currently one of the hottest casual games for the iPhone & Touch. Deceptively simple…aircraft appear at the edge of your screen; simply touch them and drag a ‘flight path’ to guide them to a safe landing on the appropriate runway. But wait,another plane has appeared, and now another! As you can guess, your airspace quickly gets complex. A very simple game to play, but much more difficult to master. Well worth the $0.99 it’s currently priced at.
Evernote: A very cool application that mates up with the PC/Mac partners. Basically, Evernote lets you clip anything to an online storage vault. You can then view your docs via any browser, or through OS specific desktop applications. Unlike social bookmarking sites such as Del.icio.us, Evernote actually clips the web page, preserving the state of the page at the time it was clipped. A rather generous free account is available, as well as a paid one offering more storage capacity.
Google Apps: Since I tend to do a lot of my work ‘in the cloud’ Google Apps is the application suite for me. The iPhone / iPod Touch implementation is quite effective at getting me access to my ‘office suite’ of tools. Mostly I use it to display and review documents I’ve created and stored there. Since it’s browser based, it uses Safari, which is great for displaying and manipulating text, but is a pain for text entry.
Safari: The default browser. For me this is an essential tool, for what is the point of being connected and not being able to surf the web? The browser works as expected. Depending on which orientation you hold the device on, pages can be rather tiny, but a simple multi-touch zoom makes them easily readable. But don’t get me started on keyboard entry for passwords and other logins…I must have fat fingers as I’m always mis-typing my logins. For text entry, it’s barely functional. I hope the recently announced 3.0 OS upgrade will address this.

Given that I’ve got over 70 apps currently installed, and I appear to have a voracious appetite to download and try out new ones, I’m sure I’ll be making another post like this one in the future.

Now these are just my current top five. What have I missed? What are your favourite iPhone apps? Please add yours in the comments section…I’m always looking for something new to download and play with

Best music player ever. Songbird 1.1.1 now with watched folders.

2009-06-19T21:29:29Z

I’ve written before about Songbird, the free, open-source music player based on the Mozilla / FireFox platform.

Basically Songbird rocks.

Well, now there’s extra-new-and-improved Songbird goodness as the update was released this evening, with the one significant feature it’s been lacking up ’till now — the ‘Watched Folder’ feature.

To quote from the songbird release email:

Watch Folders
You can choose to watch a folder hierarchy for changes and the content will auto-magically be imported in your library. If a file is removed from the watched folder, the corresponding track will be deleted from your Library.

Of course, this isn’t the only new feature in Songbird, but for me, it’s the most important.

If you’ve not tried Songbird as an iTunes replacement, give it a go…it’s really worth the investment, for Mac, PC and Linux.